Mbuji Mayi

Mbuji Mayi is a waning diamond town in the province of Kasai Orientale, kind of in the center of DRC.  It's more like center-south, really.  But the Kasais are known for having strong, smart people, and it is the province tried to succeed in the 1960s. 

 

And so here we are, visiting some USAID projects. I have worked in rural areas in Africa before, so no big surprise about the buckets of water (rather than running) for toilet flushing and the cold morning bucket bath. [Note to self: a skill that my children need to learn.]  I was dubious about the lack of mosquito nets, but no bites yet. I was not happy about the no-electricity-between-1am-and-6:30am, but I've resigned myself to sleeping in. The hotel room is, um, safe as the door locks and fine for a few days. 

But here is the really exciting thing.  There are diamonds close by, and so apparently every now and again, when someone gets lucky in the diamond pits, they want to get lucky in town.. so there are instructions in the bathroom just in case.  Phew.

 

As we are not here to get lucky, we headed off to the Governor's office for a courtesy visit and overview of our projects' progress.  It was exciting until Liliane and I got stopped by the police guarding the office because we were in pants. And then we got a talking to about not being respectful of Congolese customs, and told that we had to go back and find ourselves some skirts.  Until the head of Protocol for the Governor came out and told him to be quiet and go away. We are modern, after all.

And here's looking up the street from the Governor's office. 

The billboard is a picture of his soccer team.

After the meeting, we went to a number of different project sites close by.  Mbuji Mayi is known for NOT getting much government support, starting back with Mobutu.  It's small and easy to get around, but it feels really quite remote and poor.  I was happy to see lots of kids in their school uniforms, though.

 

There seems to be lots of fresh fruits and veggies... and we are eating well here at the Hotel Equinoxe, thanks to our fab waiter Francois.